Education as a Commodity
Type “education” and “commodity” into a search engine and you will find a plethora of fascinating articles and futuristic blogging entries. Some of my more progressive friends in the higher education community believe the concept and value of university degrees will dramatically change in the next 25 years due largely to the fact that so much information is out there for free which might lead to the ‘commodification’ of education or at least educational content.
First, I want to establish our working definition of a commodity. I went to Merriam-Webster Online and believe definition 4 best matches the context of this discussion: “a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price”.
As I researched this topic I began with a university library search and found an intriguing article by Christopher Nelson, President of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland entitled, “Accountability: The Commodification of the Examined Life”. It’s important to note that St. John’s College has only one academic program for all undergraduates and takes liberal arts education to the extreme. This provides the backdrop for Nelson’s staunch opposition to universally imposed standards-based education.
Nelson explains the desire for consumers to quantify any experience in a market-based economy but argues that education is a service and requires interaction and effort from the consumer (student) which makes it different from a true commodity. The central purpose of his article appears to be to make a case against the centralized accountability for a core set of student learning outcomes which was promoted by the U.S. Department of Education 2006 Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education report. I think the solution here lies somewhere between Nelson’s position and the strict standardization that some fear would result from carrying out the Commission’s recommendations.
I then read through the intellectual property rights and Creative Commons License sections on MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) website which reaffirmed my belief that the consuming public (students and employers) continues to legitimize colleges and universities via accreditation standards and various ranking systems which purport to justify the value add of certain institutions over their peers.
Certainly, the future will bring change to higher education but are we likely to get to the point where educational content is a commodity? Clearly the answer is no if we continue to rely on institutional prestige and accreditation. MIT states that anyone is allowed to use their OCW content as long as it is for ‘non-commercial’ purposes but emphasizes that interaction with OpenCourseWare content does NOT come with an MIT transcript which is what holds the real value among today’s consumers, nor can other universities leverage this content if they charge tuition for the course.
While there may be prophets out there hailing a new age for higher education I have a hard time seeing how degrees become a commodity. In this sense I agree with Nelson because there are too many ways that individual institutions add their own value to the educational experience regardless of whether they are a traditional brick and mortar or an online school. Don’t look for degrees to be exchanged on the Chicago Board of Trade any time soon.
References
Nelson, C. (2007). Accountability: The Commodification of the Examined Life. Change, 39 (6), 22-27.
Brian McKay Epp, M.Ed.
Academic Trainer and Consultant
Academic Misuse of Facebook?
My past two entries have focused on whether or not to use Facebook and on navigating social networks with your students. In my initial post about Facebook (To Facebook or not to Facebook) I mentioned what I think of as the “Grandmother test:” if you wouldn’t want your Grandmother (or other family member) to see the information, then it does not belong online. Below are some recent and interesting stories about the misuse or potential misuse of Facebook, and the difficulties of determining appropriate use in academic (or professional) contexts. What to do you think?
College student suspended after lewd Facebook message.
College professor posts some damaging comments on Facebook.
College student faces academic consequences for setting up chemistry study group on Facebook.
Colleges determine appropriate use of information gained from social networking sites.
Lawyers consider whether or not social networking sites can be used to monitor students.
Ultimately, it appears we are still trying to find the acceptable limits of Facebook use (and, presumably, other social networking sites as well) in professional or academic contexts. What is acceptable behavior and what isn’t? Is it ok to have study groups on Facebook? Is it ok to check on students or prospective job candidates?
So back to the idea of the Grandmother Test... These incidents remind us that almost anything posted online is not really private, and potentially is only one click or forward away from being viewed by the wrong people. Approach your social networking as if the world is watching... or at least as if your parents, teachers, students, colleagues, administrators, future job prospects, etc., are watching. Because they are.
– Gail E. Krovitz, Ph.D. –
Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant
The power of rubrics
Rubrics have been in use for quite some time now in the K-12 education community, but this best practice tool has been a bit slow to catch on in higher ed. A wider acceptance of the tenants of authentic assessment as encouraged by educators and innovators such as Grant Wiggins and Jonathan Mueller, however, has brought with it recognition that rubrics are a great way to facilitate valid measurement of learning, whether you are in the formative or summative stages of a learning task.
A great way to get a sense for the pervasive usefulness of rubric based assessment is to develop and apply a rubric outside of your academic life to see how it works. I created one for my son, who at the time was 11 and interested in earning money but not particularly informed about what a commitment to starting a career in lawn and garden care will entail. For my part, I am interested both in maintaining a nice yard and in teaching him the authentic life lesson that he earns more money when he does the best job possible.
As you may know through your own or nearby children, what you say and what the child hears and processes into an end result are sometimes two different things. In this I am informed by my own childhood, and my own children. So, for my family, the rubric is a great way to organize efforts around a quantifiable result—it represents an “explicit scheme” (Allen, 2003, italics mine) that we mutually understand, and upon which we agree. Allen defines rubrics as “explicit schemes for classifying products or behaviors into categories that vary along a continuum.” But what does the word “explicit” mean in this definition? When one employs rubrics throughout the life-cycle of an assignment or a learning event, “explicit” means that the students and the instructor (or child and parent) are in synch regarding expectations around academic or performance achievement.
One way to illustrate the value of the “explicit” in an academic setting came to me a while back as I was sitting in a meeting between parents and the administration of my son’s middle school. Our local school system was going from letter grades in middle school to a system wherein proficiency goals are stated at the beginning of the school year and then advancement toward meeting these goals is tracked on an ongoing basis, with the end result being an assessment of the student’s abilities around these goals at the end of the year (Advanced, Proficient, Partially Proficient, etc.). Change-averse parents were firing questions at the principal, and one of these questions was simply, “What is wrong with the old system?” Her answer really hits home with me—namely, the old system allows teachers, knowingly or not, to compare one student’s academic achievement to that of other students (this is known as normative comparison). A lack of well defined expectations around actual learning versus classroom behavior allows teachers to grant higher grades to academically lower-performing students based on the fact that they are polite and easy to deal with. The end result of this is that a certain kind of polite student can leave the school year with an unrecognized need for academic intervention. The child’s parents have no idea that this nice kid is unprepared to meet the demands of high school and beyond, because the student’s grades don’t reflect true learning in the way they would if grades were criterion referenced, divorcing behavior (which can be rewarded in other ways) from academic ability.
What benefits do rubrics bring to the learning environment? For students, rubrics are first and foremost a definition of faculty expectations. Rubrics will level the playing field and reduce anxiety so that students can concentrate on studying and learning rather than on figuring out what it is that an instructor is looking for. Another way using rubrics will benefit student learning is through the process of self-assessment. A rubric is a way for students to ask themselves if they have met the criteria put forth in the rubric, and this sharpens their critical thinking and analytic skills. The skill of self-assessment will help the students to navigate the evaluation process in the workplace, which is, in a well-structured and managed environment, a process whereby the employee can rely on a set of expectations defined in a job description or a client’s needs assessment in order to determine if a task is complete and well done.
For the instructor, rubrics enhance communication with the students while improving efficiency in grading. Having expectations “out there” helps because the instructor doesn't have to repeat expectations over and over when grading-- this will save time and frustration! Additionally, rubrics help to document instructor interaction with a student around the requirements of an assignment. The instructor can show that the students had foreknowledge of expectations, that these expectations were available to the student for the duration of the assignment, and that the rubric was used to assign a value to the assignment.
--Vicki Galloway Harsh, M.A.
Sr. Academic Training Consultant
Are Adult Learners Really Different?
Just as education focused on pedagogy and youth learning in response to Jean Piaget and his followers, a shift to andragogy and adult learning occurred in response to Malcolm Knowles’ suggestion that adults were not simply big Little People. A google search of adult learners provides numerous sites noting the proposed characteristics of those adult learners. Knowles suggests that adults:
- are self-directed
- bring experience as a resource
- learn based on social roles
- want immediate applicability
- are problem-centered
Charlotte Redden asks how we can “generalize about millions of individuals who vary widely by ages, abilities, job experiences, culture, linguistic fluency, personal goals, and educational background? In our work, “Online education reaches the single parent with children, the unemployed high tech worker, traditional college students, and corporate employees.”
The degree to which adults are self-directed depends on a number of personal characteristics and experience as well as the situational element of subject and context for learning. For example, corporate training differs from a degree program or courses taken due to general interest in a topic.
Adults bring many experiences to the learning environment, some are undoubtedly relevant and many will not be. Learners of all ages have experiences that may or may not pertain to a given topic or course of study.
Learners’ social roles, such as worker, do direct learning in many instances. However, many learners also pursue subjects due to interest or for general knowledge or skill that may not be directly applicable, especially in the workplace.
Learners often pursue topics for immediate applicability to work or a program of study. Again, however, learners may pursue other topics that lay a foundation for further study or growth, that are interesting or compelling, or are requirements for a goal such as a degree.
Lastly, learners often pursue topics that help resolve an issue or problem. While all learners have practical motivations they also may pursue a topic for general knowledge or out of a broad interest.
Redden states that “it is more accurate to suggest that the most important difference between adult learners and younger ones is the quantity and diversity of experience that they bring to the class. . . .These experiences can and should be incorporated into the learning opportunities for the relevance to the learner but also, and perhaps more importantly, to enrich the understanding of other students in that class.”
Andragogy informs us that adults, and many would argue all learners, bring experience, varied needs and expectations, and personal motivation to the learning experience which supports a learner-centered approach to education. Acknowledging that the characteristics of adult learners are more varied in reality and implication than many models suggest fosters the flexibility to be more attuned to the learners themselves and their success in the learning environment where we work.
Ken Switzer, Ph.D.
Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant
Knowles, M. (1984). Andragogy in Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Redden, C. (2003) Andragogy: Hit & Myth. Educator’s Voice, 4(2)
